The Road Trip

[cameron shorey]

Luis was so greatful, he was choked up a bit and asked how he could repay us.  By this time we were all pretty hungry, so it was agreed he had to buy the chicken beer.

What is a chicken beer?
Is that an alcoholic beverage usually consumed by chickens?
Or some special Guatemalan dish?
Just curious...

[javabug]

Sounds like your VW good karma will be stored up for the trip home, Bruce.

[Bruce]

Their #1 national beer is "Gallo".  Direct translation is Rooster.  It´s a decent beer, I rate it mid-high.  There are a lot of Germans in this country, and it shows in the cerveza.
http://www.cervezagallo.com.gt/index.php/edad?ref=fiestas

Yesterday I was installing the rebuilt carb onto Laura´s car (rhyme the first sylable with "how", that´s how she says her name).  The wires to the engine looked like crap.  They had that stupid plastic accordian wrap on them.  At one point, I started ripping that shit off and found many future engine fires.  Wires that were too short were extended by simply twisting them together.  Large gauge wire was extended with small wire.  And wrong colours too.  In some places bare wires were close to touching each other.   I took all that crap off and started extending the wires properly.  I showed Jose (and jr.) how to do a Western Union wire splice.  A little later, Jose told me that in Guatemala, they have a name for the person that does such poor workmanship.  They call him "Chapoose".  And the inside joke is that the name sounds almost the same as Chip Foose!

Jose´s 1300 ring job may not happen.  The brazilian pistons had 0.25mm of clearance between the rings and the grooves.  Spec limit is .05mm.  He´s got another set we can check today.

[Dave Galassi]

Bruce, thanks so much for the travel reports!  I'm envious.  I'm sure a lot of us are living vicariously through your excellent posts.

If you are crossing the border at Escipulas, have an orange with chili powder for me.  That was a real treat - for some reason the Oranges were killer there, unlike the lodging.  We stayed at a place with a shower that had a device that attached to the spout, where the water came out, and it had two 8 gauge wires going to it, that in theory were supposed to heat the water!  Didn't work, but then again, I didn't get shocked, luckily.

If you are headed for Tegucigalpa, good luck in the city.  Most of the shops I went to had no interest or idea on where to find some old parts, and that was way back.  If the chase for parts gets bad, head for the coast.  It's not Costa Rica, but it's worth the visit. 

Be safe, earn your paint chips and sump bumps and I look forward to the next installment.  Vaya con Brosol!

[Bruce]

Will check out the oranges, Dave.
My current hotel has that same water heater.  It kinda works, but changes in flow really affect the output temp.  I´m sure the electrical code at home prevents such a stupid device.

Jose got lucky yesterday.  He scored a set of NOS 1300cc P&Cs for just over $100.  And Kolbenschmidt too!  But I don´t think we´ll get the engine together and running to make the show tomorrow.

I haven´t talked to Jose about trying to find NOS parts stored away in forgotten locations.  Then yesterday, he says a shop owner near him had invited him to go up into the attic to look at a parts haul he can´t identify.  What luck!  One of the first items I saw was NOS early Type 3 front brake drums.  There were 7 of them.  I didn´t check the other drums to see if they were original VW, but I will when we go back.  Lots of main and rod bearings for Type 1 and 4 engines.  Strange, since I don´t think they got anything with a Type 4 engine.  Jose is thinking about buying the lot, then trying to sell the stuff individually.  I think the buy price will be so low, it will be easy for him to win.

[Dave Galassi]

Great news for Jose!  I hope he makes out on the lot. 

Thanks again for the updates.  It makes for interesting reading.   All the best to you.

D

P.S.  Been to any of the traveling carnivals yet?  Check out the equipment and games if you do..................

[Bruce]

Bad news for Jose.  The P&C set turned out to be 40hp 1200.  Still a good find, but it doesn´t get his engine together.  The plan is to re-ring another set of better pistons and hone the cylinders.  Engine assembly today, we leave the city in 5½ hrs!  There will be at least 6 cars in our caravan.

[bugnut68]

I can't help but wonder if there's any parts stashes to be found in Mexico anymore following the famous Jeff Walters treasure hunts of the '80s... those stories were epic.

[Bruce]

Ryan, parts stashes in Mex are very unlikely due to their tax laws.  Companies could save a lot of tax by throwing away obsolete inventory.  Not so in Central American countries, I´m told.  But the guys I talk to here say parts are very hard to get here.  One guy I spoke to today said it takes about 3 months for a shipment from the USA to be delivered.  Many of them said there are just about no old parts anymore.  I´ve been looking in Guatemala and found very little.

Bad news for Jose´s engine.  We didn´t have enough time to get it going.  Turned out to be ok since it rained most of the day on Saturday and Jose´s car is roofless. 

Next was Laura´s car.  I was able to get it all together, but the really crappy fitting exhaust needed a lot more work to fit.  The damn holes for the heat riser flange are at least 4-5mm too close together, so there was no way to get the screws in.  Since they´re threaded, I suggested to Jose to wind in a headless screw, then weld it at the top.  Then drill and tap the hole in the right place.  Also, one stud was missing for the #4 exh port.  In it´s place was a large lag screw.  Since drilling and tapping are quite difficult with the engine in place, we thought we would try to just reinstall that lag screw.  Problem was, the flange was not aligned, so it took a lot of torque to pull the flange in.  Then the damn head busted off.  We´ll get it fixed soon.

Now it was my turn for a breakdown.  As we left Jose´s shop with our small caravan, Marco was riding with me.  Less than 1km away, we hit a bump that wasn´t that big, but it made a nasty noise.  Then there was a new clunking while going down the road.  We pulled over and found the shock tower busted off!!!!  It was partly my fault, I had to clearance it to fit the P 944 adjustable spring plates back in the 90s.  With a couple of the guys, I said I was sure we could find a welder guy and be back on the road in 2 hours.  They started asking around, and in 15 min, we had our welder.  We pulled the wheel off right on the street and the guy started stick welding it with an old, small buzz box.  It was done in 1¼ hrs!

We got to Coban late in the evening for Bug Camp.  Lucky for me, Laura brought an extra tent and sleeping bag for me since I had none.  It was set up for me when I arrived.  The next morning we all set out for a long cruise through the jungle.  After about 45min to an hour, we arrived at a waterpark built around a fast flowing river.  It was kinda cool out, but there were a few guys brave enough to go in.   There wasn´t much to do there and we stayed there far too long, IMO.  A few of us decided to head into Coban.  We spent a couple hours there, then I got to thinking that it was now 4pm, and we haven´t had much chance to see the cars or talk to the owners.  I suggested we go back to the event.  Back at the event, I met the guys who drove in from San Salvador in El Salvador.  A couple of them were having overheating problems.  The fixes were easy.  Install the seal that goes around the sides and apron.  Plug up the holes for the heater hoses. 

Sunday started out great.  Sunny and all dry from the rain yesterday.  There were two Type 181 Safaris.  Both were IRS, and both had ZFs in them.  One of them had brake trouble, so he pulled off a rear drum.  When I arrived the drum was off, but I didn´t see any tool to undo the nut, so I asked.  He said he removed it with his vise-grips!  Yikes!  I went and got my 3´breaker bar with 36mm socket, and when it was time to put the drum back on, showed him how tight it was supposed to be.  Most of the cars had stock engines.  A couple of the Salvador guys had dual Solexes.  One guy said his engine was a VW Brazilia engine.  It had the low profile fan shroud, and the alternator stand had "Igniciao" instead of Zundfolge.  One car had a turbo´d engine, but on the cruise, it didn´t seem to be very fast when he was on it.  Maybe the elevation was a problem for him.  There were a couple of guys from Honduras, a Bay Westy from Mexico, and other than me, the only other foreigner was an Argentinian from SF California and his GF in their late Vanagon Westy.  They´ve been on the road for 7 months now.  There were some strange configuration cars.  70s cars with pre-64 small windows, made in Brazil.  Many times I told them about a side event we usually have called a swap meet.  They´ve never heard of this, and when I explain how it´s done, they all agree it would be a good idea.  Late Sunday at this event, there were two guys who did know about swap meets and they laid out their parts.  I picked up a heart tail light housing with a cracked lens and the chrome surround, a 60s locking column switch, and one semaphore.

People started leaving after noon.  After looking at the map, I decided to play tourist and continue heading north to see Tikal, the ancient Mayan city.  Right after I hit the road, that clunking sound was back.  Sure enough, the shock tower broke off at the welds.  I drove slowly into Coban, needing to find a welding shop, and a hotel.  About 5 min in the city, I recognized one of the Beetles from Bug Camp.  So I pulled over and the owner came out, still wearing his event tee shirt.  I showed him the problem and he took control.  He called up a friend who has a shop and arranged to get it fixed tomorrow morning.  Then he led me to a hotel 1 block away and arranged a room for me.  100 Quetzales, or about 13 bucks.  It´s not hot here, so the lack of AC isn´t a problem.

The VW guys have been super friendly and helpful to me.  The guy helping me here in Coban said something about us being "VW brothers".  That pretty much sums up the sentiment here.

[karl h]

cool, love the story!

[lawrence]

Cool stuff, Bruce. I have family in Coban and throughout Guatemala. Travel safe.

[Bruce]

Here´s the busted shock tower.  I recall when I did the clearancing, I thought it looked kind of weak.  Thinking back, I´m amazed it took so long to break.  
It´s fixed now, ¼" plates welded over the breaks.
I also took the opportunity to raise the rear on this side.  It was always a bit lower than the other side.  Now it´s about 3/4" higher.  It sure was a bitch to get the spring plate cover back on.  I didn´t have the perfect length longer M10 bolts.

[Bruce]

Early this morning, my new friend Axel and I went to his friend´s shop. We pulled the LR wheel, then I removed the top bolt for the shock to remove the broken shock tower.  The guys at that shop agreed they could not do a proper job, so they referred us to another shop.  I didn´t bother putting the busted piece back in, and just compressed the shock all the way.  On the short drive, we could hear the shock clinking against something, I guess I should have removed it.
After several hours, the repair was done.  Not pretty, but it is strong.  Then while driving away, I could hear that clinking again, wtf???  But it sounded like it was from up front.  Well, the damn front shock pulled through the top of the shock tower!
Since I was kind of tired from the rear suspension work, I took a break for lunch. Bought a big thick washer at the bolt store for 15 cents and went back to the welder guys.
The rear shock tower repair cost $31 and the front was $18.

[pupjoint]

Here´s the busted shock tower.  I recall when I did the clearancing, I thought it looked kind of weak.  Thinking back, I´m amazed it took so long to break.  
It´s fixed now, ¼" plates welded over the breaks.
I also took the opportunity to raise the rear on this side.  It was always a bit lower than the other side.  Now it´s about 3/4" higher.  It sure was a bitch to get the spring plate cover back on.  I didn´t have the perfect length longer M10 bolts.

damn....thats nasty. 

[modnrod]

Great adventure Bruce.

Sounds like the roads in Sth America are the same as the roads around here! 

[Bruce]

I made the trip to Tikal on a secondary road instead of the main highway.  They´re a bit narrower and they don´t get as much maintenance.  When there´s a hole, it gets bigger!  I had to drive partly on the opposite shoulder once to get by one hole.
And, there´s a river where they don`t yet have a bridge:

[Bruce]

I´m in Rio Dulce right now, in NE Guatemala. 
On the drive south from Tikal I found the road surface to be very slippery.  At one point I passed a dump truck in 2nd gear.  As I steered right to return to the right lane, the back end started sliding to the left.  Since I was now pointing at the ditch, i had to steer left which made the back slide to the right.  Lucky, it straightened out after that.  Then after each speed bump, I noticed it was very easy to spin the tires by just rolling on the throttle in 2nd.  I would say the road was as slippery as when the streets are wet at home.
It was similar in Monterey and Torreon in Northern Mexico, except that the streets there were shiny and very black.

[pupjoint]

Koni Red front, Bruce?

[Bruce]

Indeed.  Those shocks are a bit shorter than the stock listing Koni sells.  I recall I got them from Mark V a few years ago.  I started the trip on genuine VW front shocks, but in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala the rubber bumpers split and one of the top mounting pieces came off the shock, so I decided to switch to the backup Konis.  They ride better than I expected.

[Bruce]

Now in Honduras.  
Crossed the border late yesterday afternoon.  It took about 2½ hours to process their dumb paperwork.  Is it really necessary to record in 3 different locations that my car has 4 cylinders and burns gasoline?
Dave, I didn't cross at Escipulas, so I didn't get the chance to try the oranges with chili.  Instead I crossed at La Florido a bit north, and close to Copan.

The odometer has passed 14,000km now.

[pupjoint]

great stuff. stay safe.

[ALB]

Glad to hear it's still going well. Al

[Bruce]

I  spent the last 3 days looking at the Mayan ruins of Copan.  The site is much larger than the other Mayan cities I have seen.  Residences extend 30+ km up the valley.

This afternoon I drove around to Santa Rosa de Copan.  This road was the worst I´ve been on this entire trip.  There were sections of missing pavement hundreds of meters long.  Holes in the road the full width.  If they were smart, they would patch the holes when they are small, then it would cost a lot less in the long run.

VWs:  There aren´t any!!!  I haven´t seen a single aircooled car since I left Guatemala.  When driving on the rural roads, at least 90% of the people stop and stare at my car as I go by.
 It's very strange to get that much attention.  I bet many of the younger children have never seen a Beetle.

Many of the towns in Guatemala have a name ending in -tenango.  This means "place".  I think they should name the whole country of Honduras, T0y0ta-tenango, since it seems T0y0ta OWNS this country's automotive market.  There are easily more T0y0tas here than all other cars combined.  And most of them are pickups.

At one police road check, the cop wanted to practise his English.  He was very friendly, and when he said I could go, I took the opportunity to ask if he would sell me his hat.  "Policia Federal" is what was in an arc at the front.  At one point, he said a number, but when I pulled out my cash, he said no.

[Brew 66]

Bruce
I just showed this thread to Shaleen and she had a great question. How many miles are on your car now. You were making great  trips like this in it when we lived in Seattle back in 1999!
Be Safe
Bill

[Bruce]

Hi Bill!
I think it's got about 260k miles on the car.  The current engine has about 80k miles.

I'm in San Pedro Sula in Northern Honduras now.  Yesterday I made a short trip to Tela on the coast to spend time at the beach.  Nice warm water there.  I was in the surf for about 2 hours straight!  The road there was bad in places.  At one point I hit a hole that was about 3/4 of a meter in dia, and probably 20cm deep.  It hit really hard.  In a gas station, I could see the front right Fuchs wheel was bent slightly.  Anyone that knows Fuchs, knows it takes considerable punishment to do that.

I've only seen 3 Beetles in Honduras so far.  Today I spent a few hours rummaging through the dusty parts bins of an old VW shop that has been in business for decades.  My friend says he remembers this shop as a kid in the 60s.  I've found a few 50s mechanical parts so far, but nothing considered a score.

My friend here owns a coffee bean mill.  The office has a really nice 2 bdroom apartment on the second floor, so I'm staying here at the mill and learning a lot about how the beans are processed, graded, and shipped.
http://www.cafecopan.com/index.en.html

[Dave Galassi]

Bruce, thanks for the updates!  Glad you made it to the coast.  Yes, the water is usually warm and its worth the trip.  Hope you can keep that thing in one piece.................

Dave

[Bruce]

This morning the guys were loading containers with bags of coffee beans.  152 lbs each, and the guys tossing them around weigh less than that!  At one point a forklift needed to be moved and no one was available, so I hopped in.  Three hours later I got my first break. 
And then they offered me a job.  It sure would be nice to live in the land of perpetual summer.

All this week I have been digging through the inventory of an ex-VW shop.  They stopped working on cars about 20-25 years ago, and the parts have slowly been returning to the ground.  Literally!  The shelves are collapsing due to wood rot.  Cardboard boxes cannot be moved, only the sides now exist.  Unfortunately there's a fortune in NOS German transmission bearings that are so rusty they're scrap metal.  Same goes for the NOS Kolbenschmidt main bearings.  Many of the parts I thought were well used, turned out to be NOS, but very dirty and badly corroded.  There's probably 20-30 NOS 66 and earlier headlight rings.  All need to be re-chromed.   

[Jesse/DVK]

This sound so cool!  Keep us posted really like to read this!

[Bruce]

Yesterday I left Honduras and entered El Salvador at El Amatillo, Honduras.  I can say one thing about the bureaucracy of El Salvador, they are the MASTERS!  This time on the documents I had to list the number of cylinders, engine displacement, number of doors, number of seats, engine number, type of fuel, and that it is LHD.  Apparently, it is illegal to enter the country with a right hooker!
It took about 3 hours to get everything done, and that is with no lineups.  And of course, the important part is the search to see if there was any illegal stuff.  But that was of little concern to them, they only looked at the car for about 2 min.  And they didn´t find the 20 kilos of cocaine behind the back seat.
After all that was done, one Policia Civil cop was looking at the car from a car-guy perspective, asking many questions about the engine.  After telling him, he didn´t think the car would be very fast, so I said I could demonstrate.  In the middle of Custom´s parking lot (video tomorrow)

[ALB]

Give him a ride but tell him the price is his hat.... Al